President Bola Tinubu is expected to receive a report on the performance status of the Federal Government’s ministries, departments and agencies for the first quarter of 2024.

Presidency sources with knowledge of the developments said the report will form the basis of the President’s assessment of his ministers.

“What I know is that an interim report on the performance of the ministers has been submitted to the President and the report for the first quarter is being prepared,” a source who preferred to remain anonymous because he was not authorised to speak told The PUNCH.

A second source, who did not want to be mentioned, also debunked speculations about some ministers being marked for a sack, describing them as “rumours”.

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“People are carrying those rumours all over the place. May 29 is just weeks away, if the President is shaking up his cabinet, we would know by now,” the senior official who is privy to happenings in the cabinet stated.

On April 8, 2024, the President’s Special Adviser on Policy Coordination, Mrs. Hadiza Bala-Usman, who heads the Central Delivery Coordination Unit, affirmed that the CDCU had received reports from at least 20 of the 35 ministries.

She explained that the Q1 assessment report would be a product of a joint effort of the ministers, citizens and industry experts.

Bala-Usman, who spoke on Arise TV’s News Night, clarified, “Our submission is for the first quarter. So, the first quarter has just ended, and we have initiated the assessment process. The ministers have all been asked to submit their performance based on the deliverables.”

She asserted ministers will be assessed “based on what is out there in the public space. They would write to say, ‘Based on every deliverable you have given me, this is what I’ve done within the first quarter of the year.’

“Through the Citizens Delivery Tracker app, Nigerians will also say, ‘this is what we’ve seen the minister do’ and they would aggregate it,” said the presidential aide.

She also revealed, “The ministers have all been asked to submit what they’ve done in the first quarter. We have received submissions from about 20 ministries. We’re expecting the remaining and then we’re going to conclude the assessment and make a submission to the President.”

However, it could not be confirmed when the CDCU would transmit the Q1 report to the President as efforts to reach the CDCU did not yield results. As of Sunday evening, Bala-Usman did not respond to calls or text messages sent to her mobile line.

On October 17, 2023, she had announced that January 2024 was the ideal month to begin the exercise as all ministries would have received their budgets for the 2024 fiscal year.

“We’re looking to commence an assessment of the respective ministries in January 2024. We’re going to have a quarterly assessment of performance, which would culminate into an annual scorecard,” the former Chief of the Nigerian Ports Authority explained in an interview on TVC.

At the opening of the three-day Cabinet Retreat for Ministers, Presidential Aides, Permanent Secretaries and top government functionaries on November 1, 2023, President Tinubu said Ministers in his Cabinet will only retain their offices based on performance, which will be reviewed quarterly.

“If you are performing, nothing to fear. If you miss the objective, we’ll review it. If no performance, you leave us. No one is an island and the buck stops on my desk,” said the President.

On January 24, 2024, the CDCU trained at least 140 officials to track and assess the performance of federal ministries, departments and agencies ahead of the assessment.

A senior official working closely with the CDCU told our correspondent that the officers were drawn from 35 federal MDAs.

They comprise “A permanent secretary and directors of planning and other officials, four each from 35 ministries.”

“They are considering the modalities of the assessment, deliverables, the key performance indicators and the reporting mechanisms,” the official who preferred to remain anonymous revealed.

In early April, the Presidency launched the Citizens’ Delivery Tracker, which outlined 204 deliverables and 888 indicators for evaluating government MDAs.

The deliverables comprised various government policies, projects and programmes scheduled for completion between 2024 and 2027.

Bala-Usman, whose office facilitated the launch, said the CDT will provide a “strong feedback loop between citizens and the government” and hold ministers and heads of government agencies accountable for these deliverables and KPIs reflecting the eight priority areas of the Tinubu administration.

The CDT highlighted priority areas ranging from economic stability and infrastructure to social welfare and education, mapping MDAs with specific deliverables and KPIs for 2024—in the short term—and 2027 in the long term.

Under the priority area titled Reforming the Economy to Deliver Sustained and Inclusive Growth, the ministries of finance, budget and National Planning, the Presidential Committee on Consumer Credit and the Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee have been tasked with completing 28 deliverables and 53 indicators.

Some of these include increasing Nigeria’s Tax-to-GDP ratio to 15 per cent and boosting Internally Generated Revenue to N27.17tn.

The ministries of interior, police affairs and defence would be assessed based on six deliverables and 65 KPIs, including registering at least 88,000 inmates with National Identity Numbers.

Ministries of power, petroleum resources, solid minerals and steel development, among others, have been tasked with unlocking energy and natural resources for sustainable development along 27 deliverables and 130 indicators.

Among these is a target to produce at least 1.4 million barrels of crude oil daily.

Other priority areas and their deliverables are Strengthening national security for peace and prosperity, nine and 65 deliverables and KPIs, respectively; Boosting agriculture to achieve food security, 17 and 84 deliverables and KPIs, respectively; and Enhancing infrastructure and transportation as enablers for growth, 36 deliverables and 237 KPIs.

The administration also itemised 37 deliverables and 169 KPIs for Focusing on education, health, and social investment as essential pillars of development; 25 deliverables and 66 KPIs for Accelerating diversification through industrialisation, digitisation and creative arts; and 25 deliverables and 84 KPIs for improving governance for effective service delivery.

In positioning Nigeria as a global leader in development and peace, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been tasked to secure BRICS and G-20 memberships by the end of 2024 and to ensure the election/appointment of 538 Nigerians into the leadership of major international bodies within the year.

In arriving at the deliverables and KPIs, Bala-Usman said the CDCU held numerous meetings with Ministers, Permanent Secretaries and their respective technical teams for six weeks.

She explained, “The bilateral sessions looked at the mandate of the respective ministries in line with the Presidential Priority Areas and arrived at the final deliverable and KPIs.

“For each of these priority areas, we agreed on specific deliverables and developed KPIs, which formed the basis for the Performance Bond, which all Ministers and Permanent Secretaries signed with the President in November 2023.

“These parameters will guide the Quarterly Assessments and Annual Scorecards, which the CDCU is mandated to present to the President.” (Text, excluding headline: The PUNCH)

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